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If you're considering starting a restaurant, food cart or café, or will be catering, or any combination of the above, you should know that buying local can be a winning strategy especially if the food has a unique selling point that appeals to customers. Just sourcing local is not enough according to newly released research from Penn State.

Local foods must have a unique selling point
"Past experiences will have an impact on buying local foods," said Amit Sharma, associate professor of hospitality management, Penn State. "Restaurant managers who buy local foods currently are significantly more likely to keep purchasing locally." In a study of the cost and benefits of purchasing local foods in restaurants, managers and chefs indicated that certain actions of local food producers stand out as reasons why they continue to buy local foods. For instance, managers said that a local farmer's or producer's response time -- the time it took a business to respond…